Monday, 21
October 2024 - 17:11
Many
questions, few answers: Dutch PM's testy press conference over asylum
"emergency"
Dutch Prime
Minister Dick Schoof said he still expects the Cabinet to be able to make a
decision on Friday about whether or not to declare a national state of
emergency to circumvent parliament and existing law about the treatment of
asylum seekers, to enact stricter measures to handle immigrants requesting
asylum. During his press conference after a meeting with Cabinet ministers on
Monday, Schoof was almost exclusively peppered with questions from journalists
for half an hour about such an emergency declaration, and the negotiations with
coalition parties regarding it. Despite somewhat prickly exchanges, those
questions remained largely unanswered.
"You
know my answer by now, don't you," the prime minister said after a series
of question about the matter. "You can ask me a lot of questions about
this, but I'm simply not going to do it."
Resorting to
declaring a state of emergency is still an option on the table, Schoof said.
The negotiators are still considering "various options," but the
prime minister would not elaborate on the matter, such as the Cabinet
submitting a bill to Parliament with a request it be handled with urgency.
Schoof also would not say if such an urgent bill would contain even more severe
measures, such as making it a criminal offence to be present in the Netherlands
without a valid residence permit.
He also
would not say whether the Cabinet still considers the situation to be a crisis,
since fewer asylum seekers arrived in the Netherlands recently when compared to
previous years. Answering that question would be "unhelpful" with
regard to a successful negotiation among coalition parties PVV, VVD, NSC and
BBB, he stated.
Schoof was
also vague and unwilling to discuss details when pressed further about the
possible alternatives to the asylum emergency declaration which are on the
table. Nor would he say which option he prefers. "I really won't make any
statements about 'who, what, where, when' at this moment. Because then I would
only know one thing for sure, namely that we won't reach an agreement this
week. So I think it's wise to keep that in a close circle for a while."
The prime
minister is "in any case hopeful" that the deadline can be met, which
he said is a hard deadline "in principle." But he also did not want
to completely rule out that a decision could be reached later. Schoof is
leading negotiations between the coalition parties, in particular the PVV and
NSC, which have opposing viewpoints on the issue. There is "a lot of
pressure" on those negotiators, he said after the Cabinet meeting that was
postponed from last Friday to Monday.
The
coalition parties have also been keeping their lips sealed for days. Behind the
scenes, information is also only trickling out in small doses. It has been
confirmed that Schoof had a meeting on Friday with Geert Wilders, the leader of
far-right party PVV, and Nicolien van Vroonhoven, the interim NSC parliamentary
faction leader. There was a positive atmosphere during this meeting, sources
close to the coalition confirmed. Monday evening, there will reportedly be a
meeting with the same parties represented. If the two parties make progress,
the VVD and BBB will also have to join later this week.
Opting for
an option other than declaring a state of emergency would ultimately be
different from the policy plans laid out by both the coalition formation
agreement and the Cabinet's plan for a four-year term. This is why the meetings
between Wilders and Van Vroonhoven are necessary, because "the biggest
bridge" is needed to span the divide between the PVV and NSC. The leaders
of the VVD and BBB must also agree to changes, and then it must be passed by
Cabinet ministers at breakneck speed.
The deadline
set for this coming Friday was initially prompted by the autumn recess, when
national politics will come to a standstill next week. But even if a decision
is announced this week, but the Tweede Kamer and the Eerste Kamer, the lower
and upper houses of Parliament, would most likely have to return from that
recess to debate the issue.
It will be
"hard work" to reach an agreement on Friday, Schoof acknowledged.
Initially, the prime minister aimed to make a decision by the end of this past
weekend to bring to ministers during the Cabinet meeting which preceded the
press conference on Monday. That turned out to be too optimistic, he said.
Schoof would not say what could happen if a deal is not reached by Friday. It
is "a tense week," he conceded.
Reporting by
ANP
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